As someone who has been to all of the world’s seven continents, including Antarctica, and 69 countries, Jim Speer is not one who is about to let grass grow under his feet. He has been on the move his entire life, while being dedicated to ensuring mobility for others when they need it.
A 75-year journey traversing across ships, boats, planes, cars, tow trucks, wheelchairs, canes and walkers, Jim’s passions in life have always come naturally. His story is one of
resilience, innovation, and a deep entrepreneurial spirit driven by service, relationships and never leaving anyone stranded. Through ups and downs, it has guided him to create
businesses that make a real difference, including the launch of Mobility Support Solutions in 2013.
A disabled veteran himself, Jim says that “I’ve always had a heart for the disabled community, because of an experience I had when I was in high school. I had a neighbor with epilepsy, a good friend of mine. My father taught me how to take care of him during seizures. That experience, and others I’ve had, made me comfortable with the disability community.”
Growing up a Navy brat due to his dad's military service, Jim lived in 14 different places before the age of 18—including three in Cuba while his dad was stationed in Guantanamo—
making it impossible for Jim to develop any roots. Far from the most ideal home life, due to his father’s strict military discipline and expectation, Jim struggled to get through school, barely passing Algebra to graduate from high school. Later in life, he would be diagnosed with dyslexia, an “Aha!” moment for him.
Ready for a fresh start, he enlisted in the Navy when he was 17 years old. His time in the military would find him spending two years active duty on the Canisteo AO 99, an oiler ship—a Navy gas station in the sea, with three million gallons of oil onboard at any one time—until being reassigned to coxswain of the Captain’s Gig, a private boat the Captain has onboard the ship. Always the first one in port, Jim says, “I had amazing duty. It was a really great experience.”
Great experience aside, Jim didn’t want to re-up, harkening back to his days as an 11-year-old running a successful paper route. He wanted to be a salesman for the rest of his life. Jim’s professional career started the next day, after getting off his Navy ship in Norfolk, VA at the end of his time in the service.
The first time Jim laid eyes on his new home of Seattle, he couldn’t help being mesmerized by the beauty, by all the Pacific Northwest has to offer. “When flying in,”
Jim said, “they had us in a holding pattern around Mountain Rainier for about 3 turns or so. And I thought, ‘holy mackerel’, and then we're gonna be landing in 20 minutes. And I went, ‘Wow, this is 20 minutes from Seattle.’”
Jim, an East Coast Connecticut guy, wound up in Seattle at a hotel downtown. The next morning, he woke up and, upon walking around town, a large sign in the window of the Schick Razor company caught his eye: “counter sales help needed.”
“I asked at the airport how far my money would take me, and they said, ‘Well, you can go to Seattle, LA, San Francisco, wherever you want to go.’ I said, ‘Well I haven't been to Seattle, but I haven't been to LA or San Francisco either,’ but, I said, ‘Let's go to Seattle.’”- Jim Speer
Unable to resist the opportunity, Jim opened the door, grabbed the sign, walked up to the counter where the manager was, and inquired about the opening.
Surprised by his confidence, Jim explained how the manager responded, “‘What are you doing with my sign?’ and I said, ‘Well, it says you need counter sales help and I'm your guy.’”
“‘Uh, put, put, put the sign back,’ he responded.”
“Well, did you hire somebody?” Jim retorted.
“No.” Said the manager.
“‘Well, I'm your guy.’ And the guy says, ‘Who are you? Where'd you just come from?’ I said, ‘Well, I just came out of the Navy yesterday.’”
“‘You're hired.’ He said. And so I got hired to the Schick service company, and that started my sales career.“
After cutting his teeth as a salesman at Schick—the beginning of a 50-year odyssey at local car dealerships in the automotive, trucking and insurance industries—Jim was pulled away.
Jim chuckles as he thinks back on it, "Well, I got in trouble quite a bit. A lot of times because I thought I could do it better than what was presented to me. I had that entrepreneurial-type spirit in me. I always wanted to be in business for myself. I didn’t want
to be working for someone else as it always got me into trouble. But that doesn’t mean you don’t work for someone else. You're representing someone else, but you're working for
your account and for your clients, and it’s not as if you aren’t accountable to them. But I always had that bent in my life, wanting to be in business for myself."
Jim took a deep breath and continued, "I started my own [insurance] agency back in '76. That was the beginning of my journey. I dealt with various products over the years, mainly in the service contract and auto dealer side of things. I called on auto dealers in the Northwest, and it flourished like nobody could imagine. We were selling the kind of service contracts and roadside products we have now.”
He started Mobility Support Solutions in 2013, offering a multitude of wholesale and individual products focused on mobility roadside assistance, including accessible transportation, towing and wheelchair assistance. With a predominant focus on the disability community, MSS’ packages also support families, should any group become stranded on the side of the road with a broken-down vehicle.
The founding of MSS was due to a chance conversation, Jim says, "The VA happened to be the place it took place. I'm not afraid to get in conversation with anybody, so I got this guy sitting
in a wheelchair, missing an arm and a leg, into a conversation and one thing led to another. We got to talking about what we did for a living and I told him about our emergency roadside business. He told me how he had used a similar service a few weeks back, but said they left him on the side of the freeway.”
The roadside assistance service he had used worked fine picking up his van, except he was left on the side of the road and had to wheel himself off the freeway about a half a mile into a strip mall. Jim was flabbergasted and wondered “Why would they do that?” The answer he found was less simple: it's a significant liability for the wheelchair user to ride in their van while it's sitting on a flatbed truck, so tow truck drivers will not do it. And another thing: they're not going to take the person out of their chair, due to HIPAA requirements.
“That story stuck with me,” Jim said. “So when I went back to the office, I googled it and I couldn’t find anything in the marketplace [for roadside assistance]. After really digging deeper and deeper, there wasn't anything, and I thought, ‘I've got an opportunity here to create something.’"
Inspired by his conversation with the vet, and upon further research, Jim called his fulfillment company to share what he wanted to do. When he shared that it involved serving vets, they were eager to help.
As Jim recalled, "He says, ‘let's go. Let's do it. I want to serve them too.’ That’s how we got off the ground, but it morphed into a much larger thing.”
Discovering that 54 million people had checked a box indicating they were mobility-challenged, Jim realized this was the most underserved market there was. These numbers included 4.5 million wheelchair users, 3-4 million scooter users, and many more with other mobility aids.
It was an eye-opener.
A wealth of knowledge and experience, Jim is full of stories to tell. His wife Kathy and his faith in God keep him grounded. Jim and Kathy will celebrate their 50th wedding
anniversary later this summer in August. Together, they have three children. Funnily enough, Kathy never wanted to be married to a car salesman. It literally took an act of God for her to come around to Jim’s calling in life.
Many adventures still await Jim, as he has much more of the world to see and explore. He will continue his quest to always be a student and live by his personal motto: “keep looking up.” Mobility Support Solutions will keep going the extra mile for their customers, and, as Jim says, “Our goal is never to turn down a call when it comes to somebody in a chair.” Opportunities abound for Jim to live out his life’s mission and purpose while changing lives. Only one thing remains to be said about this mobility journey: it's full speed ahead for Jim as he explores new adventures, markets, and customers. It may only be a matter of time before we all find ourselves needing to jump aboard the USS Mobility Support Solutions.
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